Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

in use since 1958 when the old and now outdated transliteration called Wade-Giles
was faded out. The former has been used throughout and where the latter, Wade-
Giles, has also been used it has been labelled (WG).
My main sources have been: the Wellcome Library, the Royal Society of
Medicine library, the British Medical Association library, Medline, Embase, PubMed
Central, Medicina Antiqua, Bulletin de Médecine Ancienne, US National Library of
Medicine, the Internet Library of Early Journals and, of course, Wikepedia and
Google. I am also indebted to the great scholarship of Professor Mann’s ‘Modern
Drug Use’ an enquiry on historical principles, and Dr Sneader’s ‘Drug Discovery’,
both superb books.
This book is based on published works and as such may give a biased
impression as to what was really happening in the world. Adverse drug reactions
occurring to those in remote areas of developed countries or in undeveloped
countries had little chance of being reported. An account of rural general practice in
Essex, UK, in the nineteen thirties revealed that the doctors prepared and
dispensed their own drugs including ‘Vinum Ferri’ for their richer patients; this was
made by putting a pound of nails into a Winchester jar and filling it with cooking
sherry. The mixture was shaken every day for 3-4 weeks and then allowed to settle.
It was prescribed for anaemia (Barber, 1974). No doubt a similar lag occurred in
other ages and countries.
Acknowledgements
My task would have been impossible without the help of the Wellcome Library. Both the
Royal Society of Medicine library and the BMA library have been essential for my research. I
am also grateful to the following individuals:
Dr Jeffrey Aronson for his general advice and specific suggestions for the Introduction and
Chapter 1
Dr Patrick Waller for his advice and suggestions on part 3
Dr Abdul Kaadan for help with the translation of Kitab 1 a-Munjih al-fibb
David JB Stephens for help with German and French translations
Dr Mike Hadoke for translation of the German papers on Aspirin and for his review of the
book
Dr Nikolai Serikoff for help with the Arabic papers at the Welcome Library
Mr Will Percival for Latin translations
1 Kitab = book